The BBC has appointed ID:SR, the interior design team at architect Sheppard Robson, to design the interior workspace at its new broadcast centre in Manchester.

ID:SR secured the contract last week, following its appointment in 2006 to design the interiors of the BBC’s East Wing, which is located opposite Broadcasting House in London, W1.

For the Manchester centre, the BBC briefed ID:SR to create ‘a workplace of high contemporary and innovative specification’, says Helen Berresford, head of ID:SR and design director for the project.

The open-plan office at the new development, in Manchester’s Media City UK, will feature transparent studios, and a ‘flexible, collaborative workspace’ similar to that at East Wing, where scene-setting lights that change colour were used to create key camera views from the World Service news studio to the control gallery.

The BBC intends to move several key children’s, sports and radio departments to three buildings at Media City in 2011.